Downtown Las Vegas is getting its all-women tasting fundraiser back this fall. Picnic in the Alley, the annual event created and presented by women to showcase female chefs, beverage professionals and artisans, will run from 3 to 6 p.m. on October 25 in the Las Vegas Arts District, with the exact location to be announced closer to the date. Tickets cost $150 and grant holders an all-you-can-enjoy tasting experience, though buyers must be at least 21 years old.
The festival's return to downtown marks a homecoming of sorts. As reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Picnic in the Alley was held in 2024 at 1326 S. Main St. at W. Imperial Ave. before relocating to GreenGale Farms in 2025. Co-founder Jolene Mannina said bringing the event back to the Arts District is thrilling, according to the same report. Mannina and fellow co-founder Sharee Bruscher launched the tasting fundraiser in 2019, and it has grown since into one of the city's more visible showcases of women working in food and drink.
Every year, the event's lineup mixes established local names with newer faces across the culinary and beverage trades. This year's participating culinary professionals include Erica Bell of Double Zero Pie & Pub, Lili Barajas of Tacotarian, Lorena Cardenas of Sparrow + Wolf, Nicole Brisson of Brezza, Bar Zazu and Amari Italian Kitchen & Wine Shop, and Edna Penate. On the beverage side, guests can expect pours from Cesilia Berumen of The Golden Tiki, Niki Benevides of Marketeam, Roxy Hendrickson and Kat Calma of The Dustland Bar, and Emily Baddock of Alt Imports.
Funding a Pipeline for Women in Hospitality
Money raised through Picnic in the Alley benefits Women's Hospitality Initiative programs, which the Review-Journal describes as building a pathway for women's hospitality leadership through training, advocacy, business skills and management skills. Those programs include an academic leadership course launched in 2020 with UNLV's Harrah College of Hospitality and the Culinary Institute of America, according to Forbes. Called “From the Classroom to the Boardroom: Leadership for Women in Hospitality,” the course later expanded to Florida International University and San Diego State University, teaching business leadership skills alongside strategies to identify and mitigate unconscious gender bias.
The stakes behind that curriculum are laid out in industry data. Women comprise more than half of culinary school students nationwide, but fewer than 7% reach executive chef or restaurant owner levels, according to Nation's Restaurant News. The National Restaurant Association's 2024 demographics data found that women make up 54% of all U.S. restaurant and foodservice employees and 50% of managers, yet hold just 20.5% of chef roles. The imbalance extends beyond restaurant kitchens: a March 2026 CoStar report citing U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and American Hotel & Lodging Association figures found women made up 52.3% of the hospitality workforce in 2022 but held only 28.7% of executive leadership roles, alongside an 18.4% gender pay gap.
From a Documentary Screening to a Growing Movement
The Women's Hospitality Initiative traces its origins to early 2020, when Las Vegas restaurateur Elizabeth Blau, talent strategist Mary Choi Kelly, publicist Kristin Whittemore and event producer Jolene Mannina founded the organization following a UNLV screening of Joanna James's documentary A Fine Line, which examined the global scarcity of female head chefs, per Las Vegas Weekly. Mannina brought deep event-production experience to the effort, having founded the Back Of House Brawl chef competition, overseen culinary programming for Life is Beautiful, and started SecretBurger.com and Vegas Test Kitchen, an incubator that supported 50 local chefs testing new food concepts.
Picnic in the Alley isn't the only fundraising vehicle for the initiative. WHI also co-hosts the annual Women in Hospitality Leadership Conference and Sip & Savor Grand Tasting at UNLV, which channel funding toward WHI initiatives alongside the university's Rebels EmpowHer and WomenUp leadership programs. The event has also drawn major corporate backing in recent years — its 2025 edition secured title sponsorship from MGM Resorts International along with venue and brand partnerships from Bellagio, Aria, Campari and Tito's Handmade Vodka, according to the event's Facebook page.
That kind of Strip-level investment has coincided with visible momentum for female chefs in Southern Nevada. Reporting from StarChefs in May noted a surge of local recognition, including 2026 James Beard Award semifinalist Ellie Parker of Main St. Provisions and finalist Sarah Thompson of Casa Playa, with local chefs observing that female-led kitchens on the Strip were rare just a few years ago but have expanded rapidly since. For now, the October 25 gathering in the Arts District offers a more grassroots version of that same push — a single afternoon of tastings meant to keep funding the pipeline behind it.
.jpg){kind=link}